10 actions to tackle rising unemployment

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A special EU summit dedicated to tackling the impact of the economic crisis has identified ten actions to fight unemployment and create new jobs.These actions range from aids and subsidies to new enterprises to temporary adjustments of working hours and re-skilling of workers and more.

Held in Prague, the Summit has been activated by the so-called Troika Presidencies (the Czech, Swedish and Spanish governments) who joined the European Commission, employers and trade unions to pool their best ideas on how to keep people in work and help them back into new jobs. Outcomes of the Prague Summit will serve as basis in the formulation of the EU Commission inputs to the June 18-19 European Council.

President Barroso said that “Today’s EU employment summit is a significant step towards more and better coordinated action on employment. We cannot prevent this crisis from causing unemployment. But acting now can reduce job losses, and help millions of people to find new and better jobs. Acting now also means paving the way for sustainable recovery. EU action on employment neither starts nor stops with today’s summit. But with today’s summit we are telling our citizens that we want their employment to be Europe’s objective number one. I call on all Member States to commit to work together to swiftly step up action on employment.”

Primary goals of the European Union will be keeping people in jobs and getting them back into jobs as quickly as possible.

“We must use all the tools at our disposal to limit the impact of the crisis on the real economy, and on people and their livelihoods in particular” said Vladimír Špidla, EU Commissioner for Employment. Who went on adding that the “summit has been an important step in determining how best to tackle unemployment and create new jobs. Our strategy must be based on strong social dialogue, acting together and creating a synergy between social and economic policies. There is no trade-off between core social values and a competitive internal market.”

The summit showed a wide consensus among participants on the way ahead. The main messages agreed emphasise that future action on employment should be guided by a number of principles and aim at maintaining employment and create jobs; increase access to employment particularly to the young and upgrade skills, match labor market needs and promote mobility.

The summit also discussed how national and European-level action could work together to best effect, and how to make the best use of EU tools and resources such as the European Social Fund and the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. Both funds have recently been revised to maximise their effectiveness in times of crisis.

To prepare the summit, the European Commission organised a series of workshops with the current and future EU Presidencies (held in Madrid on 15 April, in Stockholm on 20 April and in Prague on 27 April). In addition, a special debate was held at the European Parliament in Brussels on 5 May. This consultation process brought in views from the broadest possible range of stakeholders including social partners at all levels, representatives from various EU institutions, Member States, public employment services, academics, and civil society.